Overweight kids bully, bullied more often

According to research done by Erasmus MC in Rotterdam and the GGD, young boys with obesity are more likely to bully than their "lean" peers. In addition, overweight children, both boys and girls, are bullied more often than children with a normal weight. Researcher Pauline Jansen said on Tuesday that obese children are twice as likely to be bullied as their slim peers. And obese boys are then more likely to start bullying others. For this research Jansen used data from the youth monitor of GGD Rotterdam - Rijnmond and from the Generation R study. This is a long-term research study from Erasmus MC into the growth, development and health of 10 thousand children in the Rotterdam region. According to Jansen the exact relationship between obesity and bullying is not known. Are these children being bullied because they are overweight? Or do they eat too much and stop moving around because they are being bullied?